The Country 19/05/26: Dr Jacqueline Rowarth talks to Jamie Mackay

One of our leading primary sector academics previews the big Rural Support Trust fundraising debate and dinner at Fieldays. Plus, we ask what T-20 is, and she debates the link between nitrates in drinking water and stomach cancer.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Her name is doctor Jacqueline Roweth Fortnightly. She is kind
enough to write a great, a big beautiful. I'm sounding
like Trump. Colin Forest on our website, The Country dot
co dot nzaid, hey, I've had Shane Jones Jacqueline on
the show today and my goodness he's occasionally follow wind.
I don't agree with everything Shane says, but what a

(00:22):
great orator. Now, I think he might be one of
your draw cards at the Rural Support Trust, big fundraising
event that Mike Green puts on at Field Days. You're
the adjudicator. Have we got Shane confirmed now?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
The speakers aren't yet confirmed, but as soon as they are,
there will be a great Terrah because people have been
very interested in the debate following last year and indeed
the whole auction that goes with it raising money for
the Rural Support Trust. And yes it's Mike Green who
does all the organization. He's a great name from Darren.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Aki, absolutely brilliant. Last year's surprise package for me, I'll
get onto the topic of the day very shortly was
Sue's redmain. I didn't know she was that good on
her feet.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, we had a great team last year. And George Dodson,
who was the Young Farmer of the Year. He was
brought in and indeed Sarah perrim was there as well,
and she was really last minute type person. But they
all took to heart the instruction to have fun and
so that was absolutely lovely because they did. And George

(01:26):
I was the adjudicator, as you said, I gave him
a Best Speaker award because he actually did what debaters
are supposed to do, which is set the topic and
then address it, as opposed to some people in debate,
to a great celebrity debaters who just say what they
want to say. So you're comment about.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Showing do I think he might fall under the latter department?
An't here? Hey and your column you've referenced T twenty
and you sent me a text this morning ahead of
this yarn about T twenty and I'm thinking, what the
hell's Jaqueline talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Cricket for not cricket, it's the whole leadership expertise thing. So, Jenny,
congratulations on your award, your nomination for the one of
the primary industry in New Zealand awards, the communication one.
What were you doing twenty years ago?

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Probably pretty much what I'm doing today.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
So there's the point about expertise and experience and the
leadership work that's been done by Amanda Goodol Andrew Oswald saying,
you know, if you want a really great coach for
a basketball team, you will find that the research says
what that person was doing twenty years a go, buying

(02:40):
basketball at a high level. We'll give you the clue
about his ability to authors to coach and how quickly
it will make a difference to the team that he's coaching.
And this works for university's hospitals, and they've done the
work on that. If one drivers, they're drivers and mechanics,
they're not people with degrees that say I can do

(03:02):
this now. And by the way, I've done a couple
of leadership courses. So we need to look at the
integrity in the career path. Really, what were you doing
twenty years ago? What were you doing twenty years before that?
And I'd say for science organizations, we've put them right
in like universities or hospitals, scientists as well as academics

(03:24):
as well as doctors. They're not driven by money. So
suddenly come in that's been running a business really successfully
and says, so I can run this university. Actually, they're
problem not right because they don't understand the peculiar people
that they're dealing with, because they're motivated by the beauty
of their research, for instance, or the calling for doing

(03:45):
goods for people rather than the dollars which are the
common thing in businesses. So it's just that it's a
team minus twenty is a little rule of thumb about
an indication for how good you will be in the future.
And so I'll be doing T minus twenty across all
the nominees in the Communication Award and seeing where you sit.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
How come it doesn't work for golf check Well on anyhow,
let's move on.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I can't do that.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
A green piece are about to come out, or I
think there's a Danish report linking nitrate and drinking water
to stomach cancer and you're hot under the collar about
this one.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, it's largely to start inflaming the drinking water issue
on the Canterbury planes again. And I've read the research
and well meaning people they've looked. It's like the Polar
rector cancer paper that are similar. Some of the overlaps
in the authors is twenty seven years of self reported diet.

(04:45):
They've got two hundred and sixty cases of stomach cancer
and they're saying nitrate and might trita part of the cause.
And though nitrate from plants is good, nitrate from water isn't.
I don't know how the stomach knows where the source is.
And they keep overlooking the fact that the human body

(05:06):
co lets nitrate compounds and recycles them in the saliva.
Remember the bat has over eight hundred parts million of
nitrate in it and you eat it look apparently because
it's good for your heart as well as it can
taste delicious or not, as the case may be. So
we get in a muddle about what we're trying to
do here. So let's reassure everybody Green Piece has done

(05:30):
the alert, and I expect the stomach cancer will one
of the getting ahead of it. There are about four
hundred diagnoses of stomach cancer in New Zealand according to
the Ministry of Health's website, and they are really unfortunately smoking.
That's number one, obesity and alcohol and sadly three to

(05:54):
one married Pacific Islander versus the rest of the population.
So I think education about smoking, obesity and alcohol rather
than saying we've got to cut off all the water
supply across New Zealand because there is no geographical distribution
that anybody can see. It's including Professor Frank Fizzell and

(06:16):
any of the cancer research organizations that says we've got
the link with any of these health problems with where
we see higher nitrate in the drinking water.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Doctor Jacqueline Roweth, you can read all about it on
our website, the Coountry dot co dot in Z. Looking
forward to your wonderful performance as adjudicator at the Big
Rural Support Trust debate and dinner on the Wednesday of
Field Days, and to Mike Green and his team. You
do a fantastic job. I think it's sold out, but
you might have to google it and find out if

(06:46):
there's a spare seat. If Shane Jones is going to
be there, I'll be there, and I will be there.
I think I'm in seeing with Rowena, so looking forward
to it. See you later, Jacqueline, See then,